a pause on the recto,

The problems of Vishu Mishra!

Vishu Mishra is out in the world with his second book, named as Beauty, Youth & A Beautiful Mind: An insight into the urban blights of our age. A short, swift read that this book is, I couldn’t take my eyes off until the last drop of words had been assimilated. However, this book is not a fiction, the swiftness is the high point of the narrator and not necessarily the subject’s. The subject matter runs risks of getting prosy-dry and preachy-wry if not dealt deftly. To mull on some of the most in-our-face problems of present times powered with his skills of a master storyteller is what the author does and I am glad to have read this book.

Every society has its problems and the author sees his own share of problems with today’s society. Due credit to him that the problems that he has are more discussion-worthy than the ones that have occupied the mainstream media space. Spoiler alert – Mainstream media is part of the problem .

“The world is getting stacked into urban set-ups. The revel of this human pinnacle comes along with some grave ignorance. Boons of technology have taken an untoward hack into our modern lives. Over- digitization of human activities, affects our natural inclinations & organic behaviors. The urban order suffers with challenges of natural & un-natural pollutants. This book discusses such gaps & stresses of mega-cities, which have taken away our gifts of – beauty, youth & a beautiful mind. It is an insightful discussion on the growing urban blights of 21st century. …”

When you start reading this book, you wonder if it is just another book about the types of pollution, ppm levels and steps of retribution for the human race but that’s not the case here. The book starts unfurling by itself as you navigate through pages and ceases to get limited by narrow boundaries set up by reader-prejudice. It expands and covers some of the most astonishing, known yet ignored facts of our lives and the times we live in. The urban development spree has completely missed the point, opening the way to pollution of all kinds. I recently read an article on how one can develop situational awareness of Jason Bourne. While the article is well-intended and I liked it, I wonder whether it is even possible to try such a thing in an age of digital slavery? When most of the heads on the streets droop into smartphones, and everyone looks like suffering from hearing-loss with UFO saucer sized headphones clamped to the ears, what are the chances of you noticing your Dad crossing the same street? Were things better in the past? The book comes out victorious in a debate between a past, not so old & the present, aging very quick. This is where the book stands out for me. No, it’s not about whining about the changing times. The author – a 90’s kid, with an urban upbringing having observed the blights as he calls them, brings a contrarian perspective that sees through the delusional definitions of development, urban life, and mis-aspirations of a city-dweller.

Catch it if you –

want to understand the problems that matter to you and your family.

want to know feasible solutions to those problems.

want to indulge in a quick, yet informative read.

want to learn writing like a storyteller, and injecting life into related contents that have been dealt inefficiently in your previous reads.

live/aspire to live in a popular metro.

know/do not know what one means by ‘Mom, I skinned my knees’.

Trash it if you –

are not living on this planet.

The book leaves no room for negative criticism. To nitpick, I would have liked the illustrations to be in digital format (they are hand-drawn, the writer also happens to be a sketch-artist and that shows in the cover design and later illustrations in the book. So, you might actually like them) and one more round of editing done.

Our age, our problems are our own doing. This book tells you what we have done, and why it’s never too late for atonement. This is a kindle book published on amazon and can be read on kindle devices or kindle reading app on your smart device. The price is easy on your reading-budget. One tea-break would suffice to finish reading it, and that’s one more reason for not missing out on such a brilliant work. However, the victory of the writer will depend on what and how you do to change the situation. Writing is the first step, reading the second, but the third and the most important step is ‘acting’ – fiction or non-fiction – that remains the order.